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The Wild Frontier

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Mantashe’s extraordinary statement on corruption

Posted: April 16th, 2010 | By Ray Hartley


GWEDE Mantashe, the ANC’s secretary general, has just made an extraordinary statement on corruption in a speech in Johannesburg.
The gist of it appears to be summarised in this sentence: “…What we inherited actually corrupted us and therefore we are actually managing a corrupt system and a wrong value system.
More:
“…The new order [after 1994]… inherited a well entrenched value system that placed individual acquisition of wealth at the very centre of the value system of our society as a whole.”
Of course none of us should forget that the Apartheid government was corrupt – perhaps even massively corrupt – as there were no checks and balances or independent watchdog institutions to catch them out.
But to claim that 16 years after that pernicious system was thrown out, you are still held in its mesmerising thrall is a little rum, to put it mildly.
What is more correct is that there was a similiar culture of self-enrichment already in place within the new elite. It didn’t take long for it to expand its reach from the party to the state.

More from the Sapa story:
Quoting former president Thabo Mbeki, Mantashe said:”Within the context of the development of capitalism in our country, individual acquisition and material wealth produced through oppression and exploitation of the black majority became the defining social value in the organisation of white society.”
This was historic he said.
“Now because the white minority was the dominant social force in our country, it entrenched in our society as a whole including among the oppressed the deep-seated understanding that personal wealth constituted the only true measure of individual and social success.”
Societal values have shifted from “revolutionary morality to material ownership”.
The country needed reminding that life was not about “being in business”.
“Youth must be informed about participation in academia, in politics, in trade unions, in NGOs and other structures and sectors that serve society if we dream of saving our society.
“Serving our people, not monetary accrual is the definition of success.”
Mantashe told the hall, packed with Congress of SA Trade Union members, that “prudence, modesty and hard work” should be the image projected by role models in society.
Seboni was second deputy president of Cosatu and she died in a car crash in April 2009 on her way to campaign for the ANC.

  
 
 

Comments

 

Busman

April 16, 2010 at 4:30 pm

Rubbish, rubbish, rubbish Gwede, and you know it! Never in this country’s history has there been corruption on a scale that would bankrupt the nation! No one in the ANC , including you ,has a vision for the future for the nation. We are being sold into bankruptcy. We know and recognise that, and dont blame anyone but yourselves!
And, you ask the youth and others to get involved in debates . To what end ? The ANC has no vision for us, so neither do their affiliates! What will they talk about ? More of the same historic issues that made Malema the antithesis of progress and nationbuilding ? Leadership is about mapping a route forward, you don’t have that. Stop moaning give us an idea of where we are going instead! Be constructive for a change.

 

amsterdamage

April 16, 2010 at 4:46 pm

More ANC spin-doctory. Apartheid governments never had bankrupt municipalities and parastatals and on and on.
Take responsibility 100 % not mostly. That blame the whites card is almost completely faded its so worn out.

Pathetic – once again a glimmering ANC contribution.

 

Zolo

April 16, 2010 at 5:36 pm

This is absolute rubbish and getting quite rediculous.
Will apartheid always be blamed for the incompetency of our current leaders?
Maybe they must start working for a change and stop talking nonsense all the time.
This is disgusting!!!

 

SAMeme

April 16, 2010 at 6:58 pm

Men in Suits. Black, white, cynical, self-seeking. Of course it’s the same culture. I have always been amazed by the speed with which they sold out. Not to apartheid, but to BigBiz, whose interests they hold dear because they are now the same interests. The corruption is just an extra – once you have sold out, why not go all the way?

 

Marc Caldwell

April 16, 2010 at 10:03 pm

Once as a reporter at a housing conference in the Eastern Cape in 1990, when the language of the ANC and affiliates was still thoroughly “Marxist”, and “nationalisation” was being debated, I asked an Anglo American delegate during tea how they plan to respond to threats by the recently unbanned parties. The man turned to me and smiled: “We’ll make them rich,” he said.

 

Ro

April 17, 2010 at 1:37 am

I just fell off my chair! Thanks for posting this little snippet.!

 

Realistic

April 17, 2010 at 11:36 am

Just shows how incompetent the ANC are, that after 16 years they cannot even correct this. Surely their culture could not have been influenced to this extent by the “West”. It’s all heading one way, and that’s downwards. Get your assets out………….

 

Big Daddy

April 18, 2010 at 12:18 am

I can’t just stop laughing. It is neither incompetent nor rubbish, Gwede is mentally-challenged. He is affirming why apartheid was instituted.

 

Eli Jikelele

April 19, 2010 at 11:25 am

Whatever emanates from Mantashe’s ugly mouth is the ugly truth of the ANC. They behave and speak as if they are accountable for nothing and to nobody.If we are serious about saving our country, we must stand together and pay them back in the 2011 elections. Whingeing from rational voters and their alliance partners they can deal with but the ballot box can still beat them.

 

Larry Goodfella

April 19, 2010 at 12:20 pm

Eli, the ballot box never defeated Mugabe even though he lost the last two presidential elections.

From the current flurry of ongoing transparent lies and deceit and blatant corruption, what makes you think that they will not extend their dishonesty to the rigging of elections. You and I both know that this will be the case.

Therefore I am advocating all out warfare against these criminal thugs who have hijacked our country. I am not talking white on black violence. I am talking about violently evicting the ANC vultures from public office. Anything less is a waste of time and otherwise pointless. Time to move.

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